Currently, while vendors of many types of goods are able to identify (to some degree or another) the consumers of their goods and, in many cases, provide customer loyalty and reward programs, at least one substantial segment of vendors is left out of this ability: foodstuff vendors. In short, foodstuff vendors are unable to acquire basic information regarding household foodstuff usage.
There are multiple reasons that foodstuff vendors are unable gain access to consumer purchase and usage, but the primary reason is due to the current, ubiquitous method by which consumers purchase foodstuff items—through a grocery store.
A foodstuff vendor is likely able to determine the amount of goods it provides to various grocery stores. However, information regarding what is sent to various stores is nearly the extent of the information that a foodstuff vendor is able to access—the vendors have no access into how the foodstuff items are sold to consumers, or how many, or which consumers purchase which goods. Even when consumers utilize coupons, the coupons are generally redeemed through the grocery stores such that information regarding the consumer that redeems the coupon is not relayed to the vendor. Simply stated, grocery stores do not share information regarding their customers with vendors—i.e., what a specific household may purchase, when, how much, which brands, and the like.
In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/526,451, filed Oct. 28, 2014, a novel system and method for aggregating foodstuff data such that consumer purchase and usage information can be made available to foodstuff vendors is described. This related application describes the use of a computer-executable tool (e.g., an app or application) that provides a useful service to its users and, through its use, is able to identify foodstuff usage data that can be made available to foodstuff vendors without disclosing specific identifying information regarding the user/consumer household.